We bought our Kia Soul at a dealer about 1 hour from our home. They own multiple dealers and are the biggest dealer in our area. A few days ago the blower motor started squeaking intermittently. I looked it over check the cabin filter etc and confirmed it was indeed the blower. The dealer said we had a free 6 month warranty so I decided to let them fix it. I told them what was going on and even provided a video for them of the complaint. Dropped it off Tuesday night and got the call Wednesday at 11am that it was fixed. They said they did indeed replace the blower motor and cabin filter. Picked up the car and got less than a mile down the road and it starts squeaking. We took it back and was told to just call and leave a message and the manager would call us back. She never did call back even after our follow up call. I looked under the dash at the blower when I got home and discovered that they never even replaced it. At this point I am livid and I talked to the sales manager who said the tech didn’t hear the noise and couldn’t verify the concern so they couldn’t fix anything. He said they could pick my car up on Monday and leave me a loaner car and “If” they could verify the noise they would replace the blower motor. I declined since it’s an hour drive in rush hour traffic part of the way with a clutch. All I need is the blower replaced and now need a clutch replacement. I honestly knew better than to even deal with the dealer. It’s always just been less stress to fix the issues myself. So tomorrow I am replacing the blower motor. Kia didn’t make it super easy from what I understand but it is what it is. Should be fun!
Typical (bad) dealership experience
- Thread starter ram_man
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Nick1994
$100 site donor 2024
Drive 2 hours round trip and fight with the dealer so they can replace a $43 blower motor?
Pass.
Pass.
This is exactly how I’ve heard the typical dealer experience with Hyundai/Kia is.
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Use an OE part. It’s kind of a pain to replace and you don’t want to have to do it twice.
Here’s what you’ll need to do to replace it.
Replace it ASAP, because it can cause the resistor and controller to burn up
www.kiasoulforums.com
Here’s what you’ll need to do to replace it.
Kia Soul: Blower Motor Replacement - Blower - Heating,Ventilation And Air Conditioning
Heating,Ventilation And Air Conditioning. Blower. Blower Motor Replacement
www.kisouman.com
Replace it ASAP, because it can cause the resistor and controller to burn up
16 blower motor squealing
www.kiasoulforums.com
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Costs more than that and it’s kinda a pain to do. Even an autozone replacement was $130
Nick1994
$100 site donor 2024
RockAuto is your friend!
Wasn’t a Hyundai or Kia dealer it’s actually a ford dealer. They just happen to be who sold me the car.
Not going to wait and risk burning up the controller and what not, also not many good days left weather wise. It’ll be warm tomorrow so I just bit the bullet and bought one . If I had time to wait I’d order it on Amazon or rock auto for sure. I shouldn’t have to do any of the work since it has a warranty but dealership incompetence runs wild.
That's inexcusable they would outright lie to your face about work that was never performed. That's no accident either. That story was fully corroborated by several service department people. It had to be.
Not to mention forged paperwork, telling you work was performed, and parts replaced that weren't. Coaching counter people on what to say, etc. if asked questions. What aggravates me when I hear about this kind of crap, is how they can be so stupid to think they can actually get away with it. Telling you that a problem part was replaced, when it in fact it was never touched.
It's why my vehicles will NEVER see the inside of a dealership, unless there is absolutely no other way... And then I'll do nothing but worry from the time I drop it off, until the time I pick it up.
It's getting to the point, that if you want to save humanity, you can start by taking ALL the people who work at car dealerships, and dump them all into the ocean. And pray it doesn't damage too much marine life. You could replace them with prisoners out on a work detail, and you would get more honesty. Not to mention better service.
I'm not one bit surprised. In a word car dealers "suck."
My suspicion would be the dealer and/or tech involved realized this immediately and decided best just to try and 'shine on' the customer, you in this case. Working behind/below the dash not something I'd like to tear into. Unfortunately lying to the customer seems SOP for many in these times.
Sorry for your issue. Hope the repair experience is not too bad and you're able to fix it the first time with no other related issues.
Well, they always said witches could float, so I guess they would survive being dumped into the ocean! My Ford "stealership" experience is an EXACT copy of this one-take in a Ford vehicle for warranty repair, they will NOT fix it, tell you there's nothing wrong with it, and/or break something else while they're working on it! Edit-I forgot about the inevitable attempt to tack on a "DIAGNOSTIC CHARGE"!! [CENSORED!!]
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You had me until this part.
that is a prime example of incompetance , and along with the worker shortage we are seeing , i believe you will see this incompetance and quality issues /problem get really bad , because they can get away with it ,companies feel lucky just to get workers and would be afraid to let them go for issues
"All I need is the blower replaced and now need a clutch replacement."
You're saying a bit of local driving will trash your clutch or were you just implying it'd be a transportation hassle?
A post about a warrantied car sale should include year and mileage.
You're saying a bit of local driving will trash your clutch or were you just implying it'd be a transportation hassle?
A post about a warrantied car sale should include year and mileage.
Did they lie?
Did they say, “Your car is fixed.”?
Or did they say, “Your car is ready.” And what you heard, because it was what you wanted to hear, was, “your car is fixed”?
If the tech can’t hear the noise, then they can’t tell where it’s coming from. They can’t fix something they can’t duplicate or diagnose.
I don’t know of any mechanics who shotgun parts at a car based on customer troubleshooting, video, or no video.
I don’t understand the clutch part of the story. Does driving two hours risk burning up the clutch in your manual transmission? That’s a driver problem. Not the problem of the dealership.
If driving an hour each way for warranty service was a problem, then you should not have bought a car from a dealer that far away. That was your decision.
Did they say, “Your car is fixed.”?
Or did they say, “Your car is ready.” And what you heard, because it was what you wanted to hear, was, “your car is fixed”?
If the tech can’t hear the noise, then they can’t tell where it’s coming from. They can’t fix something they can’t duplicate or diagnose.
I don’t know of any mechanics who shotgun parts at a car based on customer troubleshooting, video, or no video.
I don’t understand the clutch part of the story. Does driving two hours risk burning up the clutch in your manual transmission? That’s a driver problem. Not the problem of the dealership.
If driving an hour each way for warranty service was a problem, then you should not have bought a car from a dealer that far away. That was your decision.
I’m saying my luck some flunky would be driving my car an hour from my house. Part of the drive is rush hour traffic so if the person picking up my car is an idiot my clutch will bare the brunt of their stupidity and negligence. The offer was they would drive out to my house pick up my vehicle and then drive it back to the dealership and if they heard the noise they would “fix” it. But after the first time I’m obviously skeptical of that actually going well.
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